Steam

When I played Alien: Isolation for the first time, I got sick to my stomach. It was a physical necessity that I stop playing - and I hadn’t even seen the Alien itself yet. Now is the next age of the horror game. Not just horror for the gamer - not just a place where you can get out an tune out. Instead you’re trapped in a space station with the perfect organism, one that cannot be killed, one that’s never been so real to you as it is here and now, discovering you having a nervous breakdown in a staff locker.

Either you’re going to love this game or you’re going to hate it. There’s a lot riding on elements of fandom, terror, and gameplay here. You really have to ask yourself a few questions before you take the plunge. We really should make a flowchart for you in deciding whether or not to allow yourself to experience this game, starting with the key - have you seen the original ALIEN film?

Skeptical was what I was when I began playing Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. When you attempt to transfer a beloved, storied universe from one media to the other, you’re under a lot more scrutiny than you’d be if you’d started fresh. But like Alejandro Jodorowsky said about Dune, you have to disrespect your source material if you want to successfully create new life. Behold: Shadow of Mordor.

Welcome to the age of playing music that doesn’t go with a video game with the video game you’re playing on Steam. Introduced this week by Valve is Steam Music, a system that’s been in testing for well over a year.

Back when Jason Holtman left Valve, got hired by Microsoft, left Microsoft and went to Oculus (in early June), one major project was in the works. That project has turned up now, and its headed up by Holtman: creating a Virtual Reality Marketplace. Oculus will start this project in the public with the Oculus Platform, ready for action soon on web browsers, apps for iOS, Android, and Windows, and on Virtual Reality devices.

The first full-length trailer has arrived for the game Resident Evil Revelations 2. This game will be rolling out with elements from Resident Evil 2, but will move on from that storyline to a new island entirely. This version will star Resident Evil 2’s Claire Redfield and Barry Burton’s daughter Moira.

Supposing you switch computers often - like if you review PCs for a living - you’ll be glad to know of the latest Steam update. Valve has deemed it important that users be able to install multiple games at once with ease. While you’d have been able to jury-rig this in the past, now it’s much, much easier.

There’s a game out there called Super World Karts, one made in the "16-bit era" of games, ready to roll with an "indie" cast of characters in Steam Greenlight mode. Of course there’s also a Kickstarter. And of course it works for Windows, OS X, and OUYA - with more platforms on the way.

It’s very, very early to start speaking about Saints Row V if you’re only considering the details that’ve been released by Deep Silver / Volition. It’s also early so suggest that the game might be near completion, given the amount of time that’s passed between each successive release in the series. But the rumblings have begun, nonetheless, and the first official details could be here as soon as August 29th, 2014.

This week the folks at Konami have made it official: Metal Gear Solid 5 will be coming to Steam. PCs will be able to access Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but first we'll see Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Release dates have not yet been shared, but the shorter game will come first, followed by Phantom Pain.